Daily Cupcakes - November 15th, 2011

First up, a preview of the game tonight.

Falling behind early has become a trend of late for the Colorado Avalanche, contributing greatly to their recent slump.

They'll look for a better start Tuesday night when they visit the Pittsburgh Penguins, who remain among the Eastern Conference's best while awaiting the season debut of Sidney Crosby.

Colorado fell behind Calgary 4-0 midway through the second period Saturday, and its comeback attempt fell short in a 4-3 loss.

That marked the third straight game the Avalanche (8-8-1) have had fallen behind by at least three goals. They lost 5-2 at Detroit last Tuesday and rallied to beat the New York Islanders 4-3 in overtime Thursday.

NHL.com has an article about Milan Hejduk getting the "C".

"Milan is a player who leads by example both on and off the ice," Avalanche coach Joe Sacco said. "He is a product of this organization and won a Stanley Cup with this franchise. He is well-respected among his teammates and we feel he deserves this opportunity and responsibility."
 
Hejduk, who has served as one of the permanent alternate captains since 2008-09, joins Joe Sakic and Adam Foote as the only captains the Avalanche have ever had. Overall, Hejduk is just the 10th captain in the franchise's 32-year history. The Usti-nad Labem, Czech Republic native joins Peter Stastny as the only European-born captains in franchise history.

Adrian Dater has a blog on SI.com about some of the more "weird and wonderous" things he's seen in the NHL. Patrick Roy makes the list a few times.

 The November game in 1997 when Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy, bored and on the losing end of a game against the Rangers at New York's Madison Square Garden, stickhandled all the way to the red line, doing a spin move to shield the puck and turn his enormously padded rump to a Rangers defenseman.